Notes/Thoughts
I just had to get some thoughts out, and where as I don't use the bible in my path, or most of Christian believes for that matter, I do however believe this:
The Bible
Can you use/believe it and still practice Wicca?
The Bible can be used in parallels to practicing Wicca, yet, you have to overlook miss interpretation of vernacular, verses and over all thoughts about it. The bible started as a history of the people (Old Testament) and states facts based on the times. HOWEVER VERNACULAR AND PHRASING ARE NOT THE SAME NOW AS THEN, and as such are commonly misinterpreted.
For example, did you know the old Greek word "malakoi" means "Soft". This, in those times, was an insult to men for a variety of things. Everything from wearing perfume or luxurious clothing, to not wanting to work/laziness, heck even for loving/lusting after women too much. "Soft" later got changed to "effeminate" in later texts and was then seen as "gay".
I menchin this because of
I Corinthians 6:9-10: “9 Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men[/b]10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”.
This text actually should read "soft men" not "men who have sex with men".
Also another issue is most assume God created the first man and women and that was it, and he did, but see God also created others before them. God populated the world with mankind only to realize his mistake and later correct it.
If you look closely it states:
Genesis 1:27-28
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
then later states...
Genesis 2:7
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
If mankind was already made then how come it is only now talking of Adam.
Most over look the fact that this means God populated the world and then realized his mistake. He needed to connect the earth and man kind together with a soul/energy so that we could be complete. So he made man and women over again in a garden overflowing with life so that we could connect to the animals and nature. We are made of earth and there for we must honor it as we do our Creator.
If you don't think this way then ask yourself this: Where did Cain find his wife? Why is it that there are so many ethnicity of people if we all came from just the two? If we have proven that inbreeding would lead to genetic anomaly that would wipe out a population/group of people then how can we have came from the same two people?
Another issue is people overlook the context of things. Think of the Bible as a text book of history. It hold exerts from letters, diary's, biography's and autobiography's. You have to think of the message as they are being told within those formats and within the history of the time. How things were told by word of mouth (and you know how that can go) or the events going on during the time things were being said.
A perfect example, though somewhat irrelevant during modern times but still being used none-the-less, is a letter Paul wrote to a church. In it he states
1 Corinthians 14:34
“34 Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says.”
The context here is that Paul was writing to a church that had a problem with a large group of women that were becoming disruptive, distracting and controlling. Which was hurting the reputation of the church. He gave many instructions among them being that the group of women should have no say in the church nor should they be in control of it.
Errors like this are so common and verses are over looked and not connected due to years of being taught how others were taught and so on. People rarely take the Bible for what it is. Its a book. Left to be interpreted as you see fit by historians. It contains history and fact yet the facts are miss interpreted through out history and miss taught through years of misunderstanding and in some cases greed and manipulation. Its your job to take the book learn it and find its errors. Interpret it as you see it not as others before you and learn from it what you believe you are drawn to learn.